restoration of the Christ Church Cathedral. Without further ado,
I will commend this bill at
its first reading. Thank you. I call the Hon
Eugenie Sage.
Eugenie Sage.
greetings and to the members of the House I greet you all.
Madam Speaker, very pleased to speak
on this bill because
the cathedral, with its huge gaping hole, where the
wonderful rose window once was, with
the barricades around it since
the time of the earthquakes, is a
symbol of decay of the earthquakes.
With the pigeons being able to get
inside it, with it being open
to the weather, it hasn't been a
symbol of regeneration and
regeneration and where Christchurch wants to go in terms
of the future. So this bill is a great step towards
the reinstatement of the cathedral
and like others, I acknowledge the
Hon Nicky Wagner and
the Hon Gerry Brownlee and the former Government
for the work, but particularly Nicky
Wagner did, in working with
the church Property Trust and in
working with Bishop
with Bishop Victoria Matthews to ensure that there was a
proposal that went to the synod that
was accepted and formed the basis really
accepted and formed the basis really
for the bill that we
have before us today. Because the cathedral, as
others have also said, is a
today. Because the cathedral, as
at the heart of the city. Like Rino Tirikatene, I can remember going up
to the tower, looking out
over the city after that steep climb up all
of the steps, a viewpoint that in
earlier days you didn't often get
that sweep of city buildings from
such a vantage point. The tower now
demolished, there are proposals
for a new wooden version of the tower
that might potentially form part of
this reinstatement. So this bill
recognises that the Resource
recognises that the Resource
Management Act, and the New Zealand
Act may provide processes that
might take quite a while. As we in
Christchurch know, the division
of views around the cathedral,
the litigation that resulted from the
Section 38 notice under
the Sarah legislation that could have
seen the cathedral demolished needed to
be heeled. The work that was
cathedral demolished needed to be
The work that was done was setting up the Government working party to
look at the options that
engineers had and the church Property
Trust had to see whether there was a way
forward in terms of not
going through with wholesale demolition,
but actually reinstatement and then
but actually reinstatement and then
the former Government bringing in
all of the parties last year to
actually look at how we could get a
this bill, I think, is a really good symbol for Christchurch because
it has got support across the
parliament and the examination
of it in select committee may lead to some
changes which strengthen it. It is a
challenging concept having orders in
council which override the
council which override the
legislation that parliament has passed. But there are a number of
checks and balances in
this bill which mean that I am really
comfortable to strongly support
it. Those checks and
balances include the fact that the minister,
the Hon Megan Woods, who has brought
the bill here, is
able to consult with public on a draft order or proposal
and consult a particular
review panel that's been set up with a
lot of expertise to provide feedback. It
is also a check in the fact that
the bill provides that it will
only have orders in council that override two
pieces of legislation
orders in council that override two
Management Act and the Her Majesty New Zealand legislation. It
has got a sun set clause
of 15 years, that is another check. So
there is also provision that some bill,
particularly the bill of rigs
particularly the bill of rigs
legislation is excluded
particularly the bill of rigs orders in council that
can overpower them. The minister
must publish reasons in the House for
recommending an Order in Council and
the minister must be satisfyed that
the Order in Council is necessary
and desirable. So that provides a
member name
member name for judicial review which the bill also enables through
a truncated process in terms
of having to start within 28 days. So
the fact that a draft order has to
go before the Regulations Review
Committee, or if parliament
is not sitting, that it must go to
party leaders, is another check. The
minister must have regard to
the advice of the
Regulations Review Committee and the advice of the
Regulations Review
the regulatory panel. So all of these, Madam Speaker, are
checks on this extraordinary power of
having orders in council override
our primary legislation. Why is
it
Church plan went through the process recently of developing
the final plan, that plan did provide
for reinstatement of the cathedral. It
recognised that it would need a
reasonably expeditious process but
there is still, under
the plan, because the actual scope of works to
reinstate the cathedral is not fully
known, that there may, in fact, be
potential need
potential need for resource consents potential need for resource consents
that would be fully notified and
then could be tied up in litigation.
What has been achieved with
the synod's agreement to
the Government proposal and the funding
that has come into that, is a major
opportunity to get started
with the reinstatement. We must
take advantage of the agreement that has
been reached between the parties
after years of litigation and years
of division about the future
of the cathedral. So this bill
is critical in terms of its timing and in
providing the legal framework
for allowing reinstatement to occur
edpedestrianish usely. When you look
at the can
edpedestrianish usely. When you look
usely. When you look at the cathedral, particularly if you
are looking at it from
the east, where you see what seems an
intact roofline, quite an intact structure
from the east, certainly not
looking from the other direction,
the potential for the cathedral to be a
symbol of
symbol of resilience is also really strongly there. It has got massive
craftsmanship that went into
that building. Huge quantities of timber,
of bassalt of stone,
beautiful carvings, both inside and out, and
the arts centre in Christchurch has
shown what happens when we get
superb artisanship, engineering
skill, seismic strengthening,
vision, funding from philanthropists
from the City Council,
from Government, coming together to
Government, coming together to
restore such an important symbol of
place and heritage in our city. This
bill is going to allow that to
happen to the cathedral. I
commend the bill to the House.
happen to the cathedral. I commend the bill to the House. I
call Jo Luxton. It is a pleasure to stand
and take a call
on the Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Bill.
It has been over seven years since the
devastating earthquake in
devastating earthquake in
Christchurch in February of 2011. I
can recall exactly where I was when